Dear Friends

I am sending you a very important article that addresses the most important problem in our trade. Essentially, our trade cannot make money if rough prices are consistently higher than polished prices.

I encourage you to read the attached article and send a forceful email to Mark Cutifani, the chairman of Anglo American Corporationmcutifani@angloameircan.com about the intolerable situation regarding profits and liquidity in the diamond trade. Please also send me a copy the email and let me know what you think about the situation and my article martin@diamonds.net.

The article explains in detail how and why rough prices have been manipulated to artificially high levels and the impact that this is having on the profitability, liquidity and viability of the diamond trade.

Important points in of the article are:
1. Call for the resignation of Philippe Mellier, CEO of De Beers
2. Disclosure that we expect De Beers second half rough diamond sales to be down by at least 60%
3. Call for De Beers to drop rough prices by 30-50% to inject profits and liquidity into the trade.

Please note that we do not expect polished prices to decline due to a fall in rough diamond prices. Increased trade profits and liquidity will support polished diamond prices and expand demand as downstream distributors invest in marketing and sales.

You are encouraged to forward this article to your friends and encourage them to do the same.  We have licensed all readers to freely distribute the article.

To encourage discussion about this important matter we have also created a Facebook group “Diamond Forum” and a Twitter hashtag #diamondprofits.

The article can also be found at: Rapaport_RoughBubbleBust_112415

Best regards,

Martin Rapaport
Chairman
RAPAPORT